FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT ROCKFORD - PAGE 5

At 1:30 a.m. Wednesday in the Lithuanian Club hall on the city's Southwest Side, a young woman came up to Charles E. Box with a piece of paper and a pen. "What's this for?" Box asked. "I want your signature," she replied. The autograph and the newfound celebrity status capped a night of firsts for Box, 38, who on Tuesday was overwhelmingly elected the first black mayor in the history of Rockford, the state's second-largest city. As Chicago's electorate transferred the office of mayor to Richard M. Daley, Rockford voters conferred on Box the position of Illinois` pre-eminent black mayor.

Not to be confused with the great E.B. White children's novel of the same name, Charlotte's Web might just be the most unusual entertainment enterprise we've ever known. Our memories of it stretch back nearly four decades. It was then the name of a music club that was, if memory serves, on 1st Avenue in Rockford, where we saw, among others, if memory serves, Steve Goodman in 1983, the year before he died as a result of leukemia. Charlotte's Web was not as easy to get to (even harder to get home from, if you know what I mean)

The television commercial opens with a picture of two glasses of water, one crystal clear and the other clouded and murky, as an announcer intones the problems of Rockford's water supply. The clean glass has a "LaPasso for Mayor" button in it. The reddish-brown, murky glass, representing the failure of the current administration to clear the water, carries a "Box for Mayor" button. That commercial is one of the few instances where color has become a campaign issue as Rockford, a city long known for its small-town conservatism, considers electing its first black mayor on Tuesday.

Even as a child, Patrice Woods had a strong internal drive. She turned her family's garage into a candy shop when she was just a little girl, charging neighborhood kids 30 cents for bags of mini-Snickers bars and bubble gum. She played on a boys basketball team in middle school, and when asthma made her step away from sports, she worked behind the scenes. Woods, 23, who grew up in Rockford, is one of seven young women profiled in a new documentary called "What's Your Point, Honey?"

ST. LOUIS - When a team psychologist asked Wichita State players to select a word to describe themselves, Fred VanVleet chose "perspective. " The word resonates with the Rockford native, a once-overlooked recruit who has seen life through many angles at age 20. "Coming from where I come from and the experiences I had and where I could be, I'm humbled and blessed to be where I am," VanVleet said Thursday, relaxed at his locker. "But at the same time, where I want to go and to try to get further in life, you can't be satisfied.

Life Savings & Loan Association of America said it has moved its corporate headquarters to Rockford from west suburban Melrose Park. The association said it will maintain its Melrose Park office as a branch facility.

Benedek Broadcasting Corp. is buying five television stations from Morris Communications Corp.'s Stauffer Communications Inc. unit for $60.1 million. Rockford-based Benedek Broadcasting also is acquiring four of Stauffer's satellite stations. The stations include four CBS-affiliates in Topeka, Kan.; Santa Maria, Calif.; Cheyenne, Wyo.; and Scottsbluff, Neb.; and one ABC affiliate, in Columbia, Mo.

A Rockford man was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder for allegedly shooting a man in a spree that left two others wounded. Eddy Nelson, 48, was charged in the death of Randy Brockway, 47, of Machesney Park, said Winnebago County State's Atty. Paul Logli. Also wounded Monday were Steven Hill, 37, and Merle Lewandowski, 49. Both men were in critical condition Tuesday at Rockford hospitals. Police continued their search for Nelson, who had not been charged Tuesday with the attacks on Hill and Lewandowski.